Rodan vs Noregon
by Neil Riebe
Summary: This story picks up where the movie Godzilla vs Gigan left off. Godzilla and Anguirus have not returned to Monster Island. Concerned, Rodan searches for them and becomes embattled with a new monster-Noregon.
1. Chapter 1

Rodan vs. Noregon

By Neil Riebe

**Note:** If you want to see a concept sketch of Noregon, click on my name, and then click on homepage in my profile. When you get to the myspace page, click on the blog entry titled "See a sketch of Rodan's nemesis, Noregon." Enjoy!

Part 1

Chapter 1

There were times Rodan needed to be alone. After the humans had gathered the world's kaiju on Ogasawara Island, he felt cooped up with his mate, Rodana, and their five offspring.

The humans had emplaced barriers in the form of gas ejectors and sonic wave emitters to sequester the monsters to the island. Rodan, Godzilla, and some of the others had already found gaps in the barriers. They came and went from the island at night or during a storm so the humans wouldn't discover the holes in their defenses.

Of course, the kaiju didn't have to return. But the island offered generous living space to mark their territory. The weather was often pleasant. And they were left in peace. So they "cooperated" with the humans, even though the humans had no idea the monsters were one step ahead of them—as usual.

As for Rodan, as much as he cherished his mate, seeing the same face and hearing the same clucks and squawks wore on his nerves. Their five offspring were now rambunctious sub adults. The stress was enough to make Rodan pine over olden times when he and Godzilla battled Ghidorah shoulder to shoulder.

Once Rodan had reunited with Rodana, Godzilla drifted off and associated with Anguirus. Rodan and Godzilla weren't even rivals anymore. They just weren't in the same sphere, even though they lived on the same island.

Rodan didn't have a concept of what jealousy is, but he sure felt it.

So, while the sun was settling down, and the first stars began to shine, Rodan took to the sky and soared over the Pacific. The cool winds cleared his head.

The Japanese mainland was on the horizon, toward the north. There, smoke was rising, aglow with angry fire.

Rodan decided to investigate, flying high over the devastation. The fires were roaring from the oil refineries along the docks. The burning crude filled the air with the smell of soot. Scores of buildings lay in ruins, gutted and blackened. The humans were scurrying about like ants around a kicked over anthill. Even though this was human territory, there still was something sad about the aftermath of a fire.

Further inland, Rodan spotted a peculiar building that resembled Godzilla. The bottom half had been knocked off and reduced to rubble, but the bottom half resembled Godzilla's legs and tail. When he touched down for a closer look, he smelt an odor that was similar to the giant insects on Ogasawara Island after they've been torn open for food. Rodan didn't like the taste of bugs like some of the land-dwelling monsters, so he wasn't about to dig inside the broken Godzilla tower. Who knew what gooey substance he'd get on his fingers?

Turning from the tower, he saw burn marks in the ground that sent his synapses tingling. The marks wriggled in a squiggling pattern, as if the soil had been branded with images of serpents. Ghidorah's rays left marks like that.

The footprints he found confirmed his fears. Ghidorah had been here, recently.

So had Godzilla and Anguirus. There was another creature, a biped with one clawed-toe on each foot. No Earthly being left such a print. From the position of the prints, the single-toed monster was Ghidorah's ally. Another monster from the stars!

Rodan looked side to side to be sure no humans were around before investigating further. Like his extinct pteranodon cousins, Rodan could fold his wings at his sides and walk on all fours. He got down close to the dirt and found blood among Godzilla and Anguirus's tracks. There wasn't any in the prints for Ghidorah and his partner. This didn't bode well.

He also saw by the tracks that Godzilla and Anguirus had gone out to sea.

Maybe they lost the battle. Maybe Ghidorah and the single-toed monster were still at large.

For Rodana's sake, Rodan needed to be sure.

He took to the air in search of the space monsters. On his way he sensed a high frequency signal. It reminded him of the time when a signal had hummed in his ear and made him fight the humans and destroy their dwellings against his will. This new signal wasn't aimed at him. But it was aimed at someone else.

Rodan circled the night sky. When he gauged where it was coming from he swooped in for a landing among the ruins and got back down on all fours. The tone was humming from the ground.

Humans screamed and ran. Some fired guns at him. Rodan didn't care. There was a greater danger.

He tore away the exposed levels of a damaged skyscraper. The more he dug inside the building, the louder the hum became. He tore out the lobby, restrooms, walls and all. Furniture, desks, and decor tumbled end over end like toys into the heaps of broken mortar and shattered glass. Dust rose up in gray clouds around his feverish efforts. At last he cleared away the bottom floor. Pulling back, he slammed down his claws, cracking the concrete foundation. He burrowed into the sub floors.

The signal's intensity increased enough for Rodan to understand the commands it was transmitting. The signal was saying, "Dig! Dig! Dig to the surface. Grab this and return it to your lair." In his mind, Rodan saw the image of what "this" was. It was a metal container with a circular opening.

He found the container within the sub floors. When he reached for it, the earth gave out underneath it. Rodan plunged his clawed fingers into the sinking earth to grab the container only to have a metal spike shoot straight up out the dirt. It struck him in the face, nearly piercing his eye.

Shocked, Rodan fell onto his back. The wound on his face prickled, feeling hot and moist with blood.

The spike shimmered with a bluish hue in the waning light. It wriggled in the dirt and then split open, revealing thick conical teeth and a tongue lolling in a slippery film of saliva. The spike was a spear-pointed snout to a giant creature. It let out a gravely roar as it started digging its way out of the ground...

Chapter 2

Around the time Rodan left Ogasawara Island, the Japanese firm Mushita Electronics was holding a benefit dinner for the victims who had their businesses and homes destroyed in the industrial areas along Tokyo's coast. Japanese secret service agent, Shindo Yamaguchi, was able to attend because his partner's wife, Sayoko Kuta, was a leading researcher for the company.

The company's president and founder, Kenzo Mushita, was an admirer of Sayoko's work, among other things. She was a beautiful woman. Kenzo proposed a toast at the benefit for Sayoko as the "the loveliest scientist and technician" on his team, and then congratulated her with a kiss.

Her husband, Yomo, wasn't bothered. Kenzo was ninety-four years old and bound to a wheelchair. The old man had pep, but not enough to worry Yomo.

At any rate, Sayoko being in the good graces of the enterprising Kenzo allowed the whole gang to sit at his table: Shindo and his friend and partner Yomo, and their boss in the secret service, Goro Yamashita.

The ballroom where the benefit was held was expansive and filled with Japan's most wealthiest and influential citizens. Glasses and silverware clinked, while the guests droned in conversation. On one side of the room, a live orchestra played Bach's Badinerie. And over it all hovered a fog of cigarette smoke.

Shindo didn't smoke, contrary to the popular image of the super spy dangling a Chesterfield from his lips at the Baccarat table. Having a nicotine fit when he needed his wits Shindo could do without, although he did carry a lighter. Lighters were as useful as pocketknives and a well-concealed handgun.

He patiently listened to old Kenzo wax on about the war. In 1945, Kenzo's company was trying to perfect a radar-guided missile system to shoot down American B-29 bombers. "If the Emperor had held out for six more weeks," he said, "we would've completed our anti-aircraft rockets. Then the B-29s would've been falling from the sky like cherry blossoms."

Kenzo made "six more weeks" sound like six more minutes.

Shindo smiled, took a sip of his Chardonnay, and kept his thoughts to himself.

"Tell me, Shindo," Kenzo patted his hand. "Now that dinner's out of the way, why don't you tell me about this body you and Yomo found."

Shindo sized up the reaction from the others who were at the table, the company executives and their wives. Everyone heard about the body. They didn't know the whole story, but what little they knew was enough for them to give Shindo hesitant looks. They didn't want the gory details on a full belly.

Shindo shook his head. "I'd just as soon not."

Kenzo patted Shindo's hand harder. "Yes, I know. But the circumstances are intriguing. We just had a massive attack on the docks by two space monsters. From what I hear another race of aliens was involved. Now this body. I think we have a right to know if there is a connection."

Shindo was surprised Kenzo knew about the alien rumor. He glanced at his boss, Yamashita.

His bossed raised his brows and shook his head slightly to let Shindo know he had no idea how Kenzo found out.

But then, Kenzo Mushita was rich. With wealth comes influence and connections.

"Yes," a man spoke, "I would like to hear about the body, too."

The man was Caucasian, tall, with bland features. Yet his eyes had a childlike sparkle, in that he seemed to be taking in his surroundings as though they were new to him. Shindo also noticed the man's mannerisms as he approached their table were stiff—not necessarily formal, just stiff.

But what raised Shindo's hackles was that Celeste was with this stranger. Yomo's mouth dropped open when he saw the female mercenary. Shindo looked Yomo in the eye and raised his finger to signal his partner to keep cool. He then greeted Celeste with a smile.

She smiled back, smiling toward everyone at the table. She looked strained. It was more natural for her to smile while putting a bullet through someone's head. Shindo had to admit, though, she did manage to dress nice for the occasion. She looked good, in her own pugnacious sort of way.

Shindo then stood and offered his hand to the stranger.

The stranger shook it. "I am Erik Strong."

"Erik Strong...?"

The man looked confused by Shindo's question.

"Who are you with," Shindo clarified.

Erik Strong raised his left arm, board stiff, and bent it at the elbow enough for his hand to indicate Celeste.

One of the exec's stifled a chuckle.

Shindo said, "I mean which company do you represent? Are you with a business, institution, a foundation...?"

"No." That was all Erik would say.

"Aren't you going to introduce the lady?" Yomo asked.

Strong turned toward him. "Which one?"

Several people at the table broke out laughing.

Celeste's smile turned into a grimace while Erik didn't appear the least bit embarrassed.

Yomo nodded toward Erik's companion.

Erik pivoted toward Celeste and introduced her. He then grabbed two empty chairs from the neighboring table, sat in one without offering Celeste to sit first.

Once everyone was settled, Shindo first glanced toward his boss to confirm if he should divulge the results of their investigation.

Yamashita nodded.

With his superior's permission, Shindo humored Kenzo and this Strong about the body. "After Godzilla and Anguirus drove away Ghidorah and the other space monster, Yomo and I did some intelligence gathering. First, we went to The World Children's Land, where the monsters fought their final battle. There we met up with several eyewitnesses who were cooperating with the army in destroying Children's Land's Godzilla Tower. Among them were, of all people, a comic book artist and his girlfriend.

"The witnesses said the space monsters were being controlled by extra terrestrials. Godzilla Tower had been the aliens' HQ. The tower was too damaged for us to search for alien remains, but the witnesses said the aliens were giant cockroaches disguising themselves in human bodies.

"After some of the fires were put out, we surveyed the ruins. In an alley Yomo and I found a body, stripped of its skin. There were no clothes or identification. So we haven't yet been able to determine who it was."

"Is that good, to take the identification?" Erik asked.

Everyone looked at him strangely.

Shindo sized up Strong. He couldn't figure where this person was coming from. If Strong was out to appear suspicious, he was doing a bang up job. "I suppose if you're the murderer, that would be a good idea." Shindo put emphasis behind "if you're the murderer."

Erik didn't react. It wasn't that he was putting on a poker face to hide his intention behind the question. Shindo saw past those expressions easily. No, this Strong just didn't react.

"Anyway," Shindo said to the group, "what was even more disturbing was that Yomo and I couldn't figure out how the skin was removed. There didn't appear to be a struggle. There was no blood, other than what was beneath the body. Forensics found no metal particles in the tissue to determine what kind of blade was used. They did say the exposed tissue was burned, but only superficially. Whoever skinned this poor man skinned him with speed and surgical precision.

"At the moment, we suspect one of these cockroach creatures may have survived the destruction of Godzilla Tower, murdered the man in the alley, stripped him of his skin, and may be at large in human guise."

"I thought as much," Kenzo said.

The mood at the table turned somber.

"What do you plan to do about it?" Kenzo asked.

Yamashita took over from there.

"If you'll excuse me," Shindo said to the people seated next to him, rising to his feet. He squeezed Yomo's shoulder as he left the table, letting Yomo know he should watch the fort. In other words, watch Strong.

Meanwhile, Shindo was going to look for Satin. If Celeste was here, Satin would be around, too. He found her leaning on the railing of the landing overlooking the ballroom. When Shindo saw her, his blood ran hotter. Before joining her he took a breath to clear his head, and then went up the spiral stairs.

Satin looked delicately stunning in her evening gown, with her long rich, brown hair coiffed. The creamy white skin of her bare arms and shoulders looked sweet enough to kiss, and were without blemish, which was amazing considering the line of work she pursued.

She glanced demurely at him. Shindo appreciated that she didn't step away when he stood close beside her, although this meeting would have to be brief. His career would be in jeopardy if it became known he was seeking a relationship with a mercenary.

They kept their eyes on the crowd below. Shindo guessed Satin's reason was to act as Erik Strong's muscle, and watch his back.

Shindo wet his lips. "It's good to see you again."

She raised a brow at him. "You are pretty nervy, Mr. Yamaguchi, acting personable after shooting up my gang."

"They fired first. Besides, Celeste forgave Yomo and me for knocking her out."

Satin narrowed her gaze. "What makes you think she forgave you?"

"She didn't shoot us when she came to our table."

Satin laughed. She tried to stifle it. But she laughed.

The room's atmosphere seemed to change. It seemed cozier.

"How's Faora?" Shindo asked.

"She's fine."

Shindo spotted Satin's other henchwoman down by the main door, holding a glass of wine, watching the crowd just like Satin.

Faora had taken a bullet wound. Technically, Shindo had only injured Faora and rendered Celeste unconscious. The rest of Satin's gang had been killed either by Godzilla or the henchmen of her former employer, the mad scientist, Chiang Mi Shek. Still, it was a good sticking point.

Shindo wanted to know where he stood with Satin. After Chiang's operation was foiled, it was Shindo's duty to turn her over to the authorities, even though, in the end, she had switched sides to help defeat the rogue scientist. He didn't do it. There were times duty and doing what was right didn't coincide. That was one of them.

He could cross swords with her, and remind her that she owed her freedom to him, but he didn't treat a woman like that.

Besides, she knew he should've turned her in. He knew she appreciated it. Otherwise, she wouldn't have let him get this close.

Shindo nodded toward Erik Strong, who was now talking to Kenzo. "What do you know about Strong?"

Satin turned away and looked into her glass, and with her motion she seemed to take the warmth out of the air. "Shindo, you flip from play to work like a switch. Anyway," she looked back at him, and defiantly tossed a loose lock of hair away from her forehead. "I don't rat out an employer."

"I'm not looking for information. I'm offering. I have a file on him, or his people I should say. It's not complete, but I can keep you updated. Interested?"

"No."

"No?"

"No," she said again. "Sure, you're trying to make this look as though you're doing me a favor. But you're hoping once I see what your people have compiled about him I'll sell him out to you. No deal. I don't care who my employers are or what they're out to do. I don't make moral judgments on anyone. I do what I do because I enjoy it."

Shindo was taken aback. She had never been this open about herself before. He let the matter drop.

They were quiet for a spell.

"I know there is a part of you that really cares for me," Satin said. She circled her fingertip over the top of her glass of wine. "I like that part of you. I do." She looked up at him. "The world doesn't have much of your kind of caring. But that's only a small part of you. The rest I don't want. And that small part isn't enough to make up for the rest."

Shindo took a step back.

"Here." Satin handed him the glass of wine. "You look like you need this more than me." She checked on Mr. Strong, who was getting up from the table, shaking Mushita's hand. "Anyway, Erik wants to go."

Satin left Shindo standing with the glass of wine.

Shortly after Satin left with Erik Strong and her two compatriots, the sirens came to life. The people below stirred from their seats. The orchestra stopped. A member of Mushita's staff took the stage and said over the mike, "We have just received word that Rodan has appeared over Tokyo. Presently he is on the coast among the ruins of the industrial ward, so please remain calm and follow these instructions on how to get to the shelter..."

Chapter 3

The creature with the spear-pointed snout unearthed itself. It shook the loose dirt from its body. The creature resembled an armored dinosaur, except, instead of a dry, crusty surface, the dermal armor gleamed with a metallic, silvery-blue hue. The armor covered the entire length of the body in bands, with the bands flaring outward along the edges. Little of the creature's gray, scaly hide was visible, just the legs and throat.

The armored beast lumbered about on all fours and bellowed at Rodan, tossing its spike-tipped tail in threatening motions.

Rodan stepped back, bellowing in return, trying to get the creature to understand it was being controlled. It appeared this animal has had a solitary existence, because it didn't seem to understand. Over the years, Rodan and the other monsters had learned how to communicate by adding further nuance in the tones of their roars as well as in their body language and eye contact.

However, Rodan sensed something otherworldly about this being. The armored quadruped wasn't as alien as Ghidorah, yet it seemed to be born of mixed blood, a crossbreed between the Earth and the stars.

The armored monster pulled the container out of the dirt and set it down on firmer ground, and then roared at Rodan, challenging him.

Rodan refused to meet its challenge, so the beast curled back on its haunches and lunged at him. The creature aimed to gore Rodan in the belly with its sharp snout.

As an evasive maneuver, the winged reptile hopped up into the air. The quadruped plopped down on the ground with a thunderous crash. The concussion shook the dust from the damaged buildings. A cloud of ash stirred up around the beast.

Rodan landed several city blocks away, and squawked in defiance. He was too nimble for the cumbersome beast.

That didn't seem to matter, because the armored monster thundered down the street, among the ruins, crushing burned-out cars underfoot like they were broken eggshells.

Rodan flapped his wings. The torrential wind he stirred up pelted the beast with hard fragments of broken concrete from the ruins and clouds of eye-stinging dust particles.

The creature merely halted its charge, hunkered down, and enclosed its flaring plates, forming an armored cocoon. The debris deflected off the smooth surface with no effect.

Rodan then flew over and tried to pick the creature up with his feet, but he couldn't get a firm grip. The plates were too smooth. Rodan's toe claws screeched against the armored surface as though he were clawing steel. Once Rodan did have a hold of the animal, he found it was the heaviest beast he had ever tried to lift, twice as heavy as Godzilla—at least. As much as he flapped, he wasn't getting any lift.

Then Rodan felt a sudden pang in his back as the beast stabbed him with its spiked tail. The notched tip of the tail hooked into Rodan's skin. When the armored monster yanked its tail free, searing pain shot up Rodan's back.

The blow came too close to Rodan's spine. He wasn't taking any more chances, and decided to vacate the field of battle.

Swinging around, the monster clamped onto Rodan's leg with its jaws. Its bite had so much strength, Rodan could feel the bones threatening to snap. He poked his attacker in the eye with the tip of his wing.

Enraged, the monster roared.

Once it released Rodan's leg, Rodan took off into the sky. He circled the beast from a high altitude. Its armor glinted in the moonlight as the creature circled, trying to keep Rodan in sight. It roared and jumped up in a futile effort to reach Rodan. Clouds of dust and ash puffed around him as it hopped. Eventually, it gave up, grabbed its precious container, and burrowed back into the ground.

To be continued...


	2. Chapter 2

Rodan vs. Noregon

Part 2

Chapter 4

Shindo and Yomo had just completed their survey of the damage caused by Ghidorah and Gigan and their tag-team fight with Godzilla and Anguirus, and now they had to go back out to the same part of Tokyo again because of the scrap Rodan had with the metallic-looking monster.

Shindo contacted Dr. Yamane, the same paleontologist who had described Godzilla back in the 50s, and asked Yamane if he could come out to the site where Rodan had battled the armored kaiju the previous night.

Yamane agreed.

They wore filter masks. The firefighters hadn't quite extinguished the burning oil at the refineries. There was enough soot in the air to dry the skin and make the eyes water. A column of smoke was putting a black overcast overhead in an otherwise fine morning.

"These kaiju seemed to be getting smarter," a policeman said during their investigation. "Two decades ago, when I was new on the force, the monsters just lumbered forward, hardly looking to the left or right. They didn't seem to have anything going on up here." The officer pointed toward his cranium. "Now, they squawk and carry on as though they're talking to each other. And the one with the wings—Rodan is it? He was scratching around over there."

The officer pointed toward the Mizuho Bank. Only a portion of the outside walls remained. The floors of the once lofty building were destroyed, pulled out by Rodan. The foundation of the building was pulverized and in its place was a massive crater filled with loose dirt.

"I'm familiar with the drill," the officer said. "We had taken pictures of last night's battle and roped off areas where we have found footprints." The policeman showed them where the cordons were. He then motioned for a subordinate to come forward and give Dr. Yamane a business-sized envelope containing the photographs.

Dr. Yamane accepted them with a bow. The police handed over the envelope with a deeper bow to the elderly sensei.

Yamane and his assistants took measurements of the prints to the new monster while Shindo and Yomo examined the crater. The dirt was too loose at the edge of the crater for Shindo to dare get close. It was like a massive sand trap. Most likely, after the monster tunneled back into the ground, the surrounding earth collapsed, filling the tunnel.

"Look what I found," Yomo called out. He rolled away broken bits of concrete and pavement to unearth a glittering piece of skin. "Rodan must've scraped a piece off the monster's armored shell."

Yamane's assistants bagged the specimen.

After a quick bite for lunch, Shindo and Yomo conducted follow up interviews with the five witnesses who had encountered the cockroach aliens, the comic book artist Gengo and his girlfriend, Machicko and her boyfriend and brother, Takeshi Shima. Meanwhile, Yamane and his assistants returned to their lab at the university. Mid afternoon, Shindo and Yomo met with Dr. Yamane again at Yamashita's office to give their respective reports.

Dr. Yamane described the monster that attacked Rodan as being a relative of nodosaurid dinosaurs. "The monster has a similar skeletal structure with the forelegs being shorter than the hind ones. You can see by the slope of the back, the hips are higher than the shoulders." With his index finger, Yamane traced the outline of the monster in one of the photographs taken by the police. "The creature's tracks also have the characteristics of a nodosaur, with the broad foot pad and stout toes. However, there is one unique adaptation in the forepaws. The unguals, or the toenails, if you will, are elongated. No doubt, these sturdy unguals are used for digging.

"As for the body armor," Yamane picked up the clear plastic bag containing the skin sample. "Nodosaur body armor was made of bone. In this specimen, there seems to be deposits of metal as well. You can see it when you raise it to the light." Yamane passed the bag around.

Shindo raised the sample to the light. He could see that there was not just a metallic-blue color, but scintillating bits of red and silver. Even though the fragment was only an inch thick and about six inches across, it was as heavy as a steel plate. He handed the bagged specimen to Yomo.

"Until I receive the results of our tests," Dr. Yamane continued, "I won't be able to tell what type of metals are in this sample, or how the creature grows such a body covering. Off the top of my head, I guess this animal metabolizes what it can find underground, including veins of iron ore. The blood then collects iron deposits as well as calcium in the animal's scutes. Such a melding of metal and mineral could make this animal more resilient to our guns and bombs than any other kaiju we've faced so far."

"Can you tell us any good news?" Yamashita asked.

Yamane sat in thought for a moment. "Well, fossil evidence suggests that nodosaurs were solitary creatures. Their remains were never found in fast herds as their contemporaries, such as the ceratopsids and hadrosaurs. It's possible this new kaiju is also a solitary animal, which may be why we have never seen its likes before. It's solitary and rare."

"Let's hope so," Yamashita said.

After Dr. Yamane left, Shindo asked, "What did Erik Strong talk about last night at the dinner benefit? Did he say what he wanted?"

"He would only speak to Mr. Mushita," Yomo said. "They talked technology, things that were over my head."

Yamashita shrugged. He didn't understand the tech talk, either.

"I noticed he left shortly before the sirens started," Shindo said. "Strong makes himself appear suspicious, and the uncanny thing about it is that he doesn't seem aware of it. Just like he's..."

"From another world?" Yomo finished.

"Exactly." Shindo sat forward in his seat. "Look, we have had two confirmed extra-terrestrial incursions. The first came from Planet X. The other from an area in space called Nebula Space Hunter M. According to Gengo, the illustrator, and his friends, this second alien species were large cockroaches in human guise. We can safely cross off the people from Planet X, because they would have no reason to strip a man of his skin. They're humanoid. But the cockroaches would. What if one of them survived after the army blew them up in the Godzilla Tower. Erik Strong could be our surviving alien."

"That follows," Yamashita concurred, but then Shindo shook his head.

"No," he said. "All the witnesses agreed the cockroach aliens acted perfectly human. Erik Strong couldn't be one of them."

"Maybe Strong is a lower echelon insect," Yomo suggested. "He doesn't know how to act, unlike his leaders, who probably had studied our customs and mannerisms."

"I guess." Shindo didn't sound convinced. "But, what I was trying to lead up to earlier is that Strong may be controlling the new monster. He left just before the sirens went off. And it seems odd that the monster would emerge directly underneath the bank."

Yamashita chuckled. "If Strong comes from a race of people that can cross the gulf of space, I doubt he would be using his technological might to steal money. If he needed cash that bad, he could counterfeit it."

"True," Shindo conceded. "It's just something I had noticed."

"I agree Erik Strong needs to be watched," Yamashita said. "The problem is, we have to find him. Find him, and we'll probably come a lot closer to answering our questions on who murdered the John Doe you had found in the alley, and whether or not the actions of the new kaiju are being controlled.

"So, speaking of finding him," Yamashita looked at Shindo across the desk. "Did you see the three women he left the ballroom with?"

"Yes."

"Did you speak to any of them, find out who they were?"

"No. Aside from the one who was with him at the table, I wasn't aware the other two might have been involved. I didn't talk to anyone."

Shindo felt Yomo's eyes bore into him. Even so, he wasn't going to say anything about Satin.

Chapter 5

That evening, Yomo took issue with Shindo for not reporting his encounter with Satin. They were at Shindo's apartment. Shindo could afford a fine house, but with his jet setting lifestyle, home ownership was too much of an anchor.

They sat on the small porch, overlooking the city from fifteen floors up. Even though the summer sun was setting, the air was sticky. Dew trickled down the sides of their cocktail glasses.

"If I were a real friend," Yomo said, "I'd tell the chief about your flirting with this woman."

"Then don't be a real friend. Be a good, loyal superficial one."

"Do you have any idea what trouble you'll get into if someone else in the agency found out what you're doing?" Yomo's temper was getting hot. "Do you have any idea of what you'd be accused of?"

"No one knows anything about her."

"Maybe not our agency. CIA, MI-6, any of them could have a file on her."

Shindo shrugged. Japan had her allies. However, behind the scenes, her allies were fair-weather friends. Frequently they asked for intelligence information. Rarely did they provide it.

On the other hand, if they wanted to blunt the Japanese secret service's effectiveness, they could disclose embarrassing details about him or his fellow agents.

Shindo took his glass from the small round table. He didn't want to think about it.

"If you want to watch someone's back," Shindo said, "watch your wife's. Mr. Mushita has his eye on her. I could tell that at the benefit."

"He's just a starry-eyed old man."

"He's a dirty old man," Shindo clarified in a hard tone. "And he has influence to do something nasty."

"He can threaten her career, and that's all, and that's at the risk of his reputation. Satin can get you killed. She might even kill you herself."

"Nah." Shindo tossed his hand at his friend.

"What do you like about her?" Yomo pressed him. "Sure, she's gorgeous. But it's not like you couldn't find someone else. Someone on our side of the law."

Shindo took a swallow of his drink. "Kindred spirits, I guess. When it comes to women, I follow my gut. I don't think about it." Shindo took another draught. "Anyway, Satin doesn't want me. You have nothing to worry about."

"Do you still want her?"

"That's confidential. Not even I know that."

"I think you do."

"If I did, that would be confidential, too." Shindo flashed a smile at his friend.

Yomo returned Shindo's smile, although Yomo's was tentative and underscored with concern.

Elsewhere, underground, the armored kaiju was feasting on a pungent, juicy sort of fungi that was growing out of the nooks in the walls of Strong's cavernous hideaway. It was true that Erik Strong was the beast's master. Strong christened the armored monster "Noregon," because the monster was similar to the armor-plated beasts of Strong's home world.

Noregon was receptive to Erik's control signal because Noregon sensed that Erik was from another world. Noregon's kind had evolved from organic compounds brought to Earth by an extra-solar comet. Even though Noregon's ancestors had interbred with Earth's species, Noregon retained an ancestral indifference toward Earth. He never felt entirely at home nor accepted any kinship with Earth's fauna.

At the end of the Mesozoic, Noregon's kind had burrowed deep into the Earth's crust, drank from underground reservoirs and thrived on the plethora of fungi that filled the underground chambers that had yet to be discovered by man. Due to the lack of a ready source of calcium, Noregon's kind evolved the ability to metabolize iron ore to strengthen their bones, teeth, and armor.

Now that Noregon had burrowed toward the surface, the fungi were spreading, sprouting along the cave he had dug for Strong, which was fine. To Noregon they were a delicacy.

As he ate, Noregon kept looking at the bank vault he had fetched for Erik Strong. It lay under the glare of the work lights. Its concrete sides had crumbled. If it weren't for the reinforced alloy within its walls, the vault would've fallen apart in Noregon's jaws long before he could deliver it to this hideaway.

The vault annoyed Noregon. It didn't belong in his cave. Finally, he stopped eating and lumbered over to growl at it. He pawed it, and then gnawed on the corners.

Satin and Faora were nearby sitting on folding chairs with their elbows upon a table, playing poker. They were chucking bundles of ten thousand yen notes from the vault's cash boxes into the pot. Erik did say, "help yourself to as much as you want" for pay. So they did.

When Noregon started getting ornery again, Satin turned in her seat and calmed him down with a hand-held transmitter. Its signal soothed him. Soon, he forgot about the vault, and went back to his eating.

Satin set the transmitter beside her winnings.

Faora shook her head. "The things we do for a dishonest living."

Chapter 6

That same evening, the elderly Kenzo Mushita was dozing in his wheelchair with his head canted to the side. His chest swelled and shrank as his breath wheezed through his wrinkled throat.

He had been studying the design modifications for improving the barriers around Monster Island all afternoon. Before him were the blue prints, spread across the glass-topped table. The concentration had worn him out. Mushita Electronics was a busy company. It had to be to retain its lead in the industry.

Mr. Mushita resided in a mansion in the foothills of the Japanese Alps. He traveled to and from his corporate headquarters in the city via helicopter.

While he slept, he was blissfully unaware of the black sedan that drove up to the main gate. The guard at the gate didn't notify Kenzo that he had permitted the car ingress to the compound. When his staff or security men tried to obstruct the two intruders who stepped out of the Sedan, one the intruders raised his hand and a signal sounded in their ears. After that, they were mollified. The two intruders proceeded. Not even Kenzo's in-house nurse had the will to resist the signal.

The intruders stepped into the expansive living room. Kenzo was on the north side of the room facing the glass doors to the veranda.

In his slumber, Kenzo heard his name spoken. He stirred, snorted, and blinked his eyes open. Pinching the bridge of his nose, he asked, "What is it?"

"You said we should get together sometime. So, I am here."

Kenzo then recognized who spoke. Gripping the control stick to his chair, he turned himself around from the table to face his intruders. As he turned he pulled a gun that was concealed under the blanket across his lap. "Erik Strong...and Celeste." Kenzo nodded. "I figured you were an alien, Strong. You were an uninvited guest at my benefit, and now you're an uninvited guest in my home. My security should've stopped you at the door both times, yet here you are. Do you mind telling me how you do it?"

Erik looked puzzled.

"He wants to know how we got passed the guards," Celeste clarified.

Erik said, "Oh," and said no more. Obviously, Erik wasn't going to say how he got in here.

Kenzo snorted, and showed some teeth with his sneering grin. "I wish I had a can of bug spray, you cockroach. But I'll see what I can do with this." Kenzo took two shots at Erik's torso. Orange flame boomed twice from the gun's muzzle as the empty bullet casings tinkled on the floor.

Erik's shirt jerked from the impact of the rounds. Two smoking holes erupted. Only a small amount of blood, red blood, stained the fabric around the holes.

Erik stepped forward, raising his hand in assurance. "I am not one of them."

Kenzo sat shocked. His bullets didn't even make Strong flinch, or even upset for that matter.

Celeste hastily took the weapon from the old man's shaking hand and removed the magazine. Even though she was garbed in her black combat fatigues and Kevlar vest, she was now much more at ease.

"What are you?" Kenzo looked frail, vulnerable.

"I am a traveler," Erik Strong said. "I need replacement parts for the anti-gravity drive of my ship. Your company has the most advanced facilities on the planet. Help me build the parts I need and in return I will provide you with knowledge. Knowledge to build ships like mine. Your people will be able to walk among the stars, and they will have your company to thank for it. Is it a bargain?"

"N-no," Kenzo stammered. He swallowed to wet his throat. "No," he said again with more determination. "You are the one who skinned that man in the alley, aren't you? You did it so you can look like us."

"Aliens who are willing to shear the skin from another being would not look for help," Erik rebutted. "They would just seize what they want."

"What about her?" Kenzo narrowed his gaze at Celeste.

"She is of your world: flesh of your flesh. Bone of your bone. I hired her for protection."

"Hired? What are you paying her with?"

Erik said nothing, gazing at Kenzo with that impenetrable, passive stare. The old man insisted Erik answer.

Celeste then spoke. "Mr. Strong said you would pay me."

Erik scowled at her. Before Kenzo had a chance to notice, Celeste drew the old man's attention by walking across the room. "Erik has no Earthly currency," she said as she examined Kenzo's pictures on the wall. "But considering what he has to offer, any executive in the technologies industry would find covering the costs of Mr. Strong's security a minor expense."

Kenzo noticed Celeste studying one of his pictures, the one taken of him with his research team. In the photo, he was front and center with his arm linked with Sayoko's.

Celeste then turned.

Kenzo was satisfied that she was human, although he wasn't satisfied about anything else.

Erik lowered his hand. "I came here for help. Instead, I am distressing you. I am sorry. I will go. I am sure another firm would be willing to help."

Kenzo jolted upright in his chair as though he had been hit by a revelation. He hadn't considered the fact that a rival company might help Strong. Where would Mushita Electronics be if Toshiba or Mistubishi went from selling TVs to spaceships?

Still, Erik Strong could be lying. It would be safer to pass him off on a competitor. Meanwhile Kenzo could phone the Defense Ministry, tell them Strong came to the house, and was off to another electronics firm. But, what if Strong was telling the truth. Well, enough of the truth so that someone benefited from Strong's knowledge. Where would Mushita Electronics be? Help Strong, or not—both choices had risks. Which one was more acceptable?

"Fine! Fine!" Kenzo ground his jaw in frustration. "I will help. But listen to me!" He thrust his knobby finger toward Strong. "I have friends. Any sign of treachery, I'll go to them. They'll blast you off the face of the Earth! I am a patriot as much as a businessman."

Erik didn't respond to the threat. He walked out with Celeste in tow.

In the car, on their way back from Kenzo Mushita's estate, Erik reprimanded Celeste for speaking out of turn.

"Kenzo wasn't going to drop the money issue until someone gave him an explanation." Celeste looked up at the rearview mirror to speak to him. She was driving while Erik sat in the backseat. "So I gave him one."

"But I already paid you."

"I know." Celeste smirked. "Now I'm going to get paid again."

Understanding lit up in Erik's features. "I wanted you at my side because you appeared to be the most aggressive. I see you are clever as well."

"You're pretty clever yourself," Celeste looked back up at the mirror. "It's probably true that if a group of aliens skinned a human being, they wouldn't ask for help. They'd take what they want. But you're not a group. You're alone. You need to ask for help."

"I performed a simple word play," Erik said as he gazed out the window. "I switched a noun from its singular form to its plural."

"That's not the point," Celeste said. "With human beings, the best place to hide the truth is in plain sight."

To be continued...


	3. Chapter 3

Rodan vs. Noregon

Part 3

Chapter 7

Rodan returned to Monster Island to be sure Ghidorah and the new space monster hadn't gone there. At dawn he found Rodana and the five young ones just waking up.

Rodana clucked at him in a questioning tone. Where did he go? Why did he leave? Did he find anything—anything as in something interesting to eat?

Rodan made a low grunt, which was understood to be the Japanese mainland. That's how the monsters felt about human territory: a low, grumpy sounding grunt. If Rodan were to say he had been to human territory that was farther away, he would've muttered a longer grunt.

Rodana did sense his concern about the armored-plated monster, Noregon, and the new space monster. The young rodans sensed his concern, too. They became excited, eager to get into a fight. The only opponents they had faced were jet aircraft, and the fight was so one-sided, the five young rodans assumed all battles ended in victories.

Their mother understood that wasn't always the case. Her brow pinched in worry.

Rodan had no means to describe these creatures, other than give an impression of how dangerous he thought they were in the amount of alarm he put into his clucks.

He slept the rest of the morning and played chasing games with the young rodans in the afternoon. At night he set off again to find Ghidorah and the new space monster, but couldn't leave the island. A new sonic emitter had been installed to fill the gap in the barriers. The thrumming waves rattled his skull like a jackhammer and strained the tympanum membranes of his ears to the point they felt that they would bleed. Perhaps he could've forced his way through, but his survival instincts wouldn't allow him to push his body to such limits. He had no choice but to return to the coast.

Rodan searched the entire perimeter of the island and could find no gaps. The humans must've done a complete overhaul of their security system. Rodan did notice that no new gas ejectors had been placed on the beaches to restrain the terrestrial monsters. That could be his way out of here. He would ask one of the land-dwelling monsters to swim out to sea and disable one of sonic emitters. Namely, he could ask Godzilla.

By now the King of Monsters should've returned with Anguirus. Godzilla might help Rodan for old time's sake. He might even join Rodan's quest.

Rodan liked that idea.

However, he would have to wait until morning. Waking Godzilla was a mistake you only made once.

Night gave way to morning as the sun peered over the horizon and tinted the waves to look like bobbing rose pedals.

Rodan found neither Godzilla nor Anguirus. He went to Gorosaurus. Godzilla sometimes hung out with him.

Gorosaurus was fighting a Kamakiras, one of the giant preying mantises that lived on the island. The same atomic tests of the 1950s that awoke the prehistoric kaiju mutated many insects—ants, grasshoppers, even arachnids.

Gorosaurus had the Kamakiras cornered in a jungle clearing. The giant praying mantis had a choice: it could try to run and get its spindly legs gnarled in the dense trees, or try to fly. It didn't matter which direction it flew, it would be in easy grabbing range.

The mantis chose to stand its ground, trying to hack Gorosaurus with its sharp forelimbs.

As the barbed tibias whistled through the wind, the two-legged dinosaur ducked and weaved. When he saw an opening in the insect's defenses, Gorosaurus knocked Kamakiras into the trees with a double jump kick. The ground shook when he landed back on his feet.

Although slim compared to the other monsters, the Kamakiras had enough mass to make the trunks of the thickest trees snap like twigs. The mantis was sprawled out. The more it struggled to upright itself, the more it entangled itself in the foliage.

Saliva wetted Gorosaurus's jaws as he stomped over, clamped his teeth around the Kamakiras's head and made a sharp twist. A sickening pop came from the insect's neck, which echoed across the jungle. Slowly, the Kamakiras ceased struggling.

Being piscivorous, Rodan became nauseous as he watched Gorosaurus crack open the abdomen to his kill and feast on the innards. But then Gorosaurus was a theropod dinosaur. Theropods were evolutionary cousins to birds. And what did birds love to eat? Bugs!

It was only natural Gorosaurus would acquire similar tastes.

Although, Rodan had to admit that, when he was a hatchling, he had gobbled up giant meganeuran larva. Some of the things he ate as a youngster he would never dream of eating as an adult. Rodan would stick to seafood.

Once sated, Gorosaurus listened to Rodan's requests. He grunted his answers. Godzilla and Anguirus had never come back, and Gorosaurus had no clue where they were. Neither could he disable a sonic emitter. He wasn't a good swimmer.

Rodan flew on and found Manda, the sea serpent, splayed across the rocks under the shade of a cavernous outcropping. While the serpent rested, the waves splashed against the rocks he was resting on.

Manda ignored Rodan, which frustrated the massive pterosaur. If anyone could slip into the sea unnoticed and disable a sonic emitter, Manda was the one. But Manda was too relaxed to budge.

If the big snake was going to be selfish...well, Rodan had an idea about that.

He gathered his small flock of offspring under the shade of the outcropping, clucking at them that this was a good place to get out of the hot sun. Of course, instead of perching on the rocks to catch their breath, Loki, Hiro, Peep, and Murabu tormented Manda. They flapped about, splashing water on the big snake. They pecked Manda's turquoise scales while they screeched and chirruped. They had never seen sea serpents before. Their curiosity made them excited, except for Stumpy, who sat like a lump. Food was the only thing that got him excited.

Manda had enough. He hissed and snapped at the young rodans. To get some peace, he agreed to help. He would slither out to sea after sunset and see what he could do.

To seal the deal, Rodan batted his wings to scatter his rambunctious young from the outcropping.

Chapter 8

Kenzo wasn't happy. He had the blue prints of the parts Erik Strong required spread on the table in front of the glass patio doors. There were only three parts. Two of them interconnected while the third seemed to be a stand-alone piece. There wasn't enough information here to figure out how to build a spaceship. Kenzo felt Erik was reneging on their deal.

He complained the next time the secretive Erik and his female bodyguard Celeste came to the house.

"You promised knowledge, and all I get is three parts. Three! That doesn't tell me anything about the ship you use. And look at the size requirements." He slapped his hand on the blue prints on the table. "Just how big is your ship, anyway? Where are you hiding it?"

Kenzo's tirades could make any human quake, while Erik, as always, remained chillingly pleasant. The intimidation Kenzo tried to inculcate into Erik doubled back on him.

With the corners of his mouth pulled back in his half-formed smile, Erik said, "I gave you the original parts. They are made from an alloy that is new to your industry. That should be worth something to you."

"The original parts are burned. The two that link together had been fused. We can't learn anything from that. What happened to them?"

"The parts melted after being hit with an atomic beam of intense heat."

"Did another spaceship fire at you?" Kenzo demanded.

Erik didn't answer. He went on to say, "I provided several hundred ingots of the alloy. Didn't you save one for analysis?"

Kenzo snorted. "You provided barely enough of your special metal to construct your parts."

"Then my parts are being manufactured?" Erik asked. He showed his first sign of worry.

"We have just finished retooling one of our factories. Manufacture should begin in days. You can expect delivery no later than a week."

"Good!" Erik's worry went away.

"And where do you want the parts delivered?" Kenzo asked.

"I'll send the same truck that delivered the ingots."

"Driven by one of your femme fatales as before?" Kenzo looked at Celeste.

Erik nodded.

"And when do you fulfill your side of the bargain?" Kenzo pulled his head back, eyeing Erik skeptically.

"After my ship is ready for lift off."

"That's not good enough. You're parts are coming. You can be sure of that, Strong. So throw me a bone. Give me something to ensure your good faith."

Erik became pleased. "That is why I am here. You have done much for me while I have done nothing for you. So I am going to give you a gift." Erik nodded to Celeste.

She stepped forward. Kenzo squirmed in his wheel chair as she grabbed his arm, pulled back his sleeve, and laid his exposed, frail, wrinkled limb across the table. Kenzo cursed them between clenched teeth. Spittle dribbled from his lips as he struggled. He even screamed for security.

"Your guards won't hear you," Erik said as he walked up and ran his palm across Kenzo's forearm. A red light shined from the underside of Erik's hand. Kenzo howled in pain. He felt stinging heat slice through his flesh. When Erik removed his hand, half of Kenzo's forearm was missing. It was in Erik's grip, bone, muscle, skin and all.

Quickly, Celeste wrapped what looked like some sort of space-age tourniquet around the cleaved flesh. Blood splattered all over the table and floor. The old man wailed and tossed in his chair. But within moments Celeste sealed the tourniquet, pressed several of its buttons, and the writhing Kenzo Mushita sank into his chair with his head back and mouth open. His liver spots stood out in sharp relief on his pale skin.

Kenzo survived. Survived to suffer nightmares of being torn apart, to wander about as a skeleton missing half its pieces.

When he awoke, he felt mildly sore. The first thing he saw was the ceiling of his bedroom. He became cognizant that he was in bed. The curtains were half open, and pale light from a gray sky illuminated his room.

He turned his head and gasped.

Erik and Celeste were there, watching him.

Kenzo pulled back the sleeve to his butchered arm to find that it was whole. Not only was it whole, the skin was taught. The muscles were strong. In fact, both arms were those of a young man.

Confused, he stared at Erik for an explanation.

Erik motioned Celeste to give Kenzo a hand mirror.

Kenzo took it and was shocked at what he saw. His face looked to be twenty-one. His hair was thick and black, with not a strand of gray. It was like gazing at a ghost from the past. Seventy-year-old memories flooded his addled brain, the days of the Emperor Hirohito and the rise of Tojo, the war with China.

Erik raised his right hand, bending at the elbow with the upper arm stiff at his side. "Rise, Kenzo Mushita" he said, as though he were a rogue scientist commanding his monstrous creation to sit up from the lab table.

Uncertain of his strength, Kenzo climbed out of bed. He stood with his legs bowed and shaking. It had been years since he was able to walk. He was sure he would collapse on the floor. Yet his legs held true. He shook only because he was scared. When he realized he wasn't going to fall on the carpet, he straightened his posture.

Indeed, his strength had been restored. He rushed to the full-sized mirror and examined himself from head to toe. He was in his pajamas, but he didn't concern himself about who had undressed him. The important thing was his youth had been given back to him.

"Are you pleased with my gift?" Erik asked. "I used the sample I had extracted from your forearm to create a culture that I could use to revitalize your bones and tissues."

Excitement rushed through Kenzo's blood. But...the euphoria faded when Kenzo realized the consequences. His complexion flushed in red. The tendons stood out at the sides of his neck when he confronted Erik in a rage.

"Do you have any clue what you just did?"

Erik remained passive while Celeste smirked. She knew.

"I can never show my face again!" Kenzo shouted. "People will figure out I have had contact with an extra-terrestrial. You know how people fear aliens. They'll think I'm a traitor. They'll think I'm a threat. Like you, I'm going to have to hide." Kenzo clenched his fists. "But unlike you, I'm going to have to hide for years and years and years!"

"Take it easy," Celeste clapped Kenzo on the shoulder. "It's not like you'll lose contact with the outside world. If you need anything, just ask. Me and my two partners will be happy to fetch it for you."

"For a fee!"

Celeste shrugged. "Of course."

Kenzo narrowed his gaze at her and then pointed his finger in Erik's face. "You did skin that man. The way you neatly sliced a slab of meat off my arm, only you could've done it!"

"It doesn't matter now." Erik turned for the door. His attitude became dismissive and imperious. He didn't have to be pleasant anymore, and Kenzo knew it. Mushita was cornered right where Erik Strong wanted him.

Chapter 9

After the alien cockroaches had tried to destroy Tokyo with Ghidorah and Gigan, the Japanese secret service was on high alert. Erik Strong was at the top of their list of concerns. It was Shindo and Yomo's job to find Strong.

But there were difficulties. So they got together at Yomo's house to ask a favor of Sayoko. She prepared sukiyaki while they explained.

"There is no record of him coming into the country," Shindo said. "He has no known residence. The skinned man was a Caucasian. Erik appears to be Caucasian. Is this a coincidence or a connection? These are things we need to find out, in case he's one of them." Shindo glanced up toward the ceiling as though he were looking up at the stars.

"We figured the best place to start was Kenzo's estate," Yomo said. "Strong showed a lot of interest in Kenzo at the benefit dinner. So we put the estate under surveillance, and saw Celeste driving Strong in and out of there in a black Sedan. Of course, the plates to the Sedan were unregistered. We'd question Kenzo, but our superiors won't allow us. Mr. Mushita has too many friends in high places."

"That's why we've come to you," Shindo said. "Is there any chance you could poke around at the company and see if there is a special project in the works? We need to know if Strong and Mr. Mushita are collaborating in some way that would put our national security at risk."

"I can see what I can do," Sayoko said. "I have a high level clearance in the R & D department. I shouldn't run into too much trouble." She was slicing vegetables at the kitchen counter while the beef for the sukiyaki was simmering in its juices. Shindo and Yomo sat on mats on the floor at a low table with a couple of tall cans of beer, and a big bowl of rice.

"Kenzo has stopped coming to the office," Sayoko added. "He delivers his directives through his attorney now."

"We've observed the same thing at the estate," Yomo said. "The staff and security have been replaced with hired thugs, and Erik's Sedan has been parked in front of the portico for the past week. It looks like he has turned Kenzo's compound into his base of operations."

Then the phone rang in the other room. Since Sayoko was on her feet, she went to answer it. When she did, Shindo heard her gasp. There was a sound of a struggle in the other room.

Yomo shot to his feet and ran out of the kitchen.

Shindo got up, too, but the patio door opened behind him and a man rushed in and grabbed him from behind. At the same time, the front door opened, and two more men, dressed in black, rushed in. One went in the direction Yomo had gone. The other headed for the kitchen, pulled out a small caliber pistol with a silencer, and aimed it at Shindo's exposed belly.

Twisting hard in the tight confines, Shindo spun the man bracing his arms in the line of fire just as he heard the cough of the silenced pistol. The impact went right through his assailant. For an instant Shindo was sure the bullet had drilled through the man's body into his. But no such thing happened.

The man's grip slackened on his arms. Shindo slammed him into the thug with the gun. Both black-clad bodies crashed into the kitchen cupboards. Shindo flung the piping hot juices of the sukiyaki into the gunman's face.

Screaming, the gunman clutched his scalded flesh.

Shindo knocked him out with the butt of his own gun and then headed into the next room. He heard shooting upstairs.

Rushing to the second floor, he ran into Yomo, who blocked him with his outstretched arm. Yomo was beside the open door to the spare bedroom. His service pistol was in hand. Several bullet holes were in the walls.

Shindo dropped back behind Yomo, signaled that he was going to make a dive for the other side of the doorway, and did a three count with his fingers. When Shindo retracted the last finger, he jumped across the open doorway while Yomo provided cover fire.

A Heckler & Koch MP5 chattered. Bullets whizzed by Shindo like red-hot wasps.

In his quick dash he glimpsed who was in the spare room. He saw Celeste manhandling a gagged Sayoko through the window to Satin, who was in the next house. The homes in the Tokyo suburbs were so cramped the neighbors could reach out of their windows and shake hands.

Faora and the other gunman were sheltering behind an upturned bed.

Shindo then heard a pin being pulled on a smoke grenade. At the risk of being drilled by a bullet, he reached into the room and pulled the door shut just as Faora hurled the grenade at them. It banged off the door. Like a pot boiling over, smoke curled up from under the door.

Out of time, Shindo and Yomo rushed into the room. Satin's gang wasn't going to hang around in an enclosed space choked with canister smoke. With their handkerchiefs held over their nose and mouth, they burst into the bedroom. The swinging door cleared the smoke for a heartbeat, enough time for them to see the hired gun cover Faora as she climbed out the window. Celeste was already in the next building dragging Sayoko tow.

Together Shindo and Yomo neutralized the gunman with a couple of rounds and then plugged Faora. Fortunately for her she was wearing her flak vest, although the impact of the rounds caused her to fall.

When they reached the window, they saw her down in the narrow alley between the houses. While Yomo aimed at her, Shindo locked eyes with Satin in the neighboring house. She aimed her MP5. Shindo pulled Yomo down by the collar as Satin let loose a fierce fusillade. Bullets sprayed overhead along with bits of glass and windowsill.

When the firing stopped, it was quiet. A moment later a car squealed away from the neighboring house.

Shindo and Yomo rushed out into the street. Faora wasn't in sight. They didn't waste time checking the house next door. The squealing car was obviously Satin and gang peeling away.

When they went to their cars, they found the tires slashed.

"There's a police station three blocks from here," Yomo said, panting for breath. "We can borrow one of their vehicles."

Chapter 10

At his estate, Kenzo sitting out on the veranda as the sun set behind the mountains. He was so pleased when Satin arrived with Sayoko. Celeste pulled the gag and threw her at Kenzo's feet. Faora followed up behind with a limp.

"Your money is in the satchel on the patio table," Kenzo said.

While the three mercenaries fetched their cash, he leaned forward and ran his hand across Sayoko's smooth cheek. Shivers of pleasure coursed through him. His old man's lust could at last be fulfilled.

Sayoko drew away. At first she looked at Kenzo in puzzlement, but when she showed signs of recognition she gasped, covering her open mouth with her hand.

She got to her feet. "Kenzo? What happened to you?"

"I've been rejuvenated," he said with a leering grin. "Do you like what you see? I'm a sight better than that dopey husband of yours."

Sayoko backed away. "What do you want? I've done nothing to you!"

"Calm yourself." Kenzo stood, causing Sayoko to gasp again. She looked at him in horror. "You're here because I want you here. Erik did this to me." Kenzo spread his arms, presenting his youthful appearance. "He thought he was doing me a favor, but the ignorant sod didn't take into account how people would react if they would suddenly see a brand new Kenzo Mushita. Now I have to surround myself with criminals, because they don't care what I've become so long the money is green.

"So you're going to make up for it." He pointed at Sayoko. "You're going to be my one saving grace in my seclusion."

Sayoko looked upon him in disgust. She must still see him as the shriveled up old codger who flirted and fondled her. Her revulsion angered him. On the other hand, he considered how pleasurable it was going to be to force her to accept him.

"Here, Celeste," Satin said. "An extra ten percent finder's fee." She handed Celeste a portion of her cut.

Celeste declined with a wave of her hand. "He was an easy mark."

"I'll take it," Faora piped up. "Hazard pay for my sprained ankle."

"Easy mark? Are you talking about me?" Kenzo demanded.

"Sure am," Celeste said. "I could tell by the way you hung all over Sayoko in your pictures that if you had your youth back you'd eventually want someone to go fetch her for you."

Enraged, Kenzo stormed toward Celeste. Satin stood in his way. She was several inches taller than he was.

"Cool it, Kenzo," Satin cautioned him. "All Celeste did was keep an eye out for new business. That's no different from what you do. Everyone wants to be young and every guy wants the girl of his dreams. You got both."

"Yeah," Faora chimed. "Take your new toy into the house and go play with her."

Sayoko nearly retched. She rushed toward the patio doors.

But Erik stood in her way. He shoved her back toward the middle of the veranda.

"What is this woman doing here?" he asked.

Kenzo grabbed Sayoko's arm. "Strong, I'm not going to spend the rest of my life stuck with this gutter trash. I'm changing the deal. When your ship's ready, take me and Sayoko with you."

"I can't."

"Why not?" Kenzo roared.

"Because I have no ship," Erik said.

"What?" Kenzo became shrill. "Then what are those parts my factory is building for you for?"

"For me. I fly through space. But I use no spacecraft."

"Stop speaking in riddles! What are you? Where are you from?"

"According to your star charts, I come from the nebula Space Hunter M," Erik Strong said. "I am the monster Gigan."

To be continued...


	4. Chapter 4

Rodan vs

Rodan vs. Noregon

Part 4

Chapter 11

Shindo heard Erik pace across the veranda. He and Yomo were hiding in the living room, listening. They had already busted heads of a couple of Kenzo's thugs getting into the estate, and Yomo looked eager to bust a few more. Shindo motioned Yomo to wait one more moment.

"You're Gigan?" Kenzo snorted. "Figures our intelligence people got it wrong."

"I am a giant being," Erik said, "a cyborg from another world. Godzilla's beam damaged my anti-gravity drive. When I sustain damage I download my consciousness into one of the androids stored within my person so I may initiate repairs.

"However, it is possible," Erik, or rather, Gigan continued to say, "to rig oxygen cylinders within my body if you wish to leave Earth."

"That's more like it," Kenzo said.

"About my parts…?" Gigan inquired.

"The foreman at my factory said the parts are ready," Kenzo replied. "It's just a matter of getting them packed according to your instructions. We should receive a call from him today."

Shindo signaled Yomo. Now was the time.

They rushed from their hiding place and stood within the opening of the patio door, their guns drawn.

"We heard enough!" Yomo said forcefully before Shindo could say anything. "Sayoko, come over to me."

Normally, Shindo took the lead. However, his friend's wife was in danger, so he had no qualm about letting Yomo call the shots.

Satin and her gang stood tense with their hands resting on their MP5 machine pistols.

Kenzo scowled at everyone as though a board meeting had gotten out of hand. It was quite a sight for Shindo to see Mushita standing straight, young and fit, without a strand of gray in his black hair.

"Forget it, kid," Kenzo said. He tightened his grip on Sayoko's arm. "I paid handsomely for her. She's mine."

Yomo pulled back the hammer, aimed for Kenzo's forehead.

"You better let her go," Shindo advised. Any moment he was going to have a dead suspect if he didn't figure out how to restrain Yomo or get Kenzo to cooperate.

Gigan turned his head toward Satin, speaking calmly. "You're more familiar with these situations. Should I bargain with these two or kill them?"

Satin reacted as though Shindo's life had just been put into her hands. Her brow wrinkled in sorrow as she gave him a look of apology.

Shindo didn't wait for her answer. He shot Gigan in the head. Everyone jumped at the gun's report, except Gigan. The bullet dinged off the side of his android skull. He neither flinched nor turned his gaze from Satin. A blotch of red stained his hair.

"Make them kill each other," Celeste grinned.

Satin shot her a dirty look.

Celeste shrugged. "It's the cleanest way out of this."

Gigan raised his palm toward Shindo and Yomo.

Shindo had an idea of what was coming. He and Yomo unloaded everything they had in hopes of hitting a soft spot on Gigan. Gigan's clothes rippled from the rounds tearing through them.

Kenzo pulled Sayoko clear from the ricocheting bullets.

Gigan stood strong. It was like trying to put holes into a tank.

Shindo then heard a piercing hum. A thought came to him: shoot your partner. His mind's eye visualized shooting Yomo. Before he could reflect on what was happening, he turned and aimed for Yomo's head, while Yomo aimed for his heart.

Chapter 12

Rodan was taking a nap when he felt a set of fangs sink into his foot. Waking with an irritated squawk, he saw it was Manda.

The giant serpent hissed that he had disabled one of the sonic emitters and then tossed his chin toward the direction Rodan would find the gap in the sonic barriers.

Rodan clucked irritably that it was about time!

Manda didn't show any remorse for trying the winged reptile's patience as he slithered into the jungle.

Rodan couldn't see him, but he could see the tops of the trees sway as Manda squeezed past them and hear the branches of the underbrush crack and pop.

Once again, Rodan took to the air. It seemed certain Ghidorah and his space monster cohort were no longer at large. That still left Noregon, but first, Rodan wanted to find out what happened to Godzilla and Anguirus.

If Godzilla was severely injured, or had gone someplace to die, he would likely go someplace familiar. There was something about being back in your old stomping grounds that put the mind at ease. The best place to start was Odo Island. Odo Island was once Godzilla's home, where he lived in peace, minding his own business, until the humans started dropping depth charges on him. That was Godzilla's side of the story, anyway.

Rodan flew at top speed for Odo Island, and there, upon the shore, he found Godzilla and Anguirus. They squinted up at him in the bright sun as he circled overhead.

He soared down from the sky and hit the beach with a reverberating thud. A cloud of sand kicked up around his heels. Rodan bellowed in relief in finding them.

Godzilla looked hurt. He had a deep gash in his shoulder and wounds in the top of his head. Burn marks criss-crossed his gray, craggy hide as though he had been attacked with an intense beam of energy.

Anguirus wasn't in any better shape, wobbling about as though he had been bruised in a hundred places. He had a gash in his forehead. Dried blood encrusted the scales along his snout.

Ghidorah couldn't have done this. It must've been Ghidorah's cohort. What a powerful creature this other space monster must be.

Rodan muttered a grunt to ask Godzilla if he and Anguirus had won.

Godzilla perked up and grunted sharply. Of course they won! He flung his hand toward the sky. Ghidorah and his ally fled.

But did he see them leave Earth? Rodan wanted to know.

Godzilla shuffled about, tossed his tail, and gave no conclusive answer.

At any rate, if Godzilla and Anguirus could chase the space monsters away, then the space monsters could be beaten.

Rodan fetched fish from the sea for them to eat. He then tried to describe the armored plated monster, Noregon. Clucking and grunting, he raised his wings to express what a great danger Noregon was. He squawked at his highest pitch to imitate the signals the aliens from Planet X had used to control him and Godzilla. He believed a signal like that was being used to control Noregon, which meant there were other enemies.

With his head canted, Godzilla listened thoughtfully. He grunted that he was aware of this other signal, because he heard it broadcasting from Japan. Ghidorah and his ally were being guided by it. But the beings that were transmitting that signal had been destroyed.

When Rodan heard that, he was sure Godzilla would join him on his quest to defeat Noregon. But Godzilla seemed ambivalent.

Chapter 13

Shindo was in one of those moments in which time seemed to move in slow motion. He could see Yomo's finger press the trigger. He could see the hammer go back. It would be easy to succumb to the command. Shoot his partner. Live to fight another day.

But Shindo wasn't going to do it. The fact that Yomo was his best friend was the only thing that gave Shindo the acuity to resist Gigan's control signal. The command swept fast and reflexive like a compulsion, yet Shindo got ahead of it and took control of his actions. Then acting from his reflexes, for he didn't have time to think about what he was going to do, Shindo knocked Yomo's gun down just as it fired.

A searing sensation grazed his side. At first it was hot, and then Shindo felt wetness.

Ignoring his own pain, he belted Yomo across the jaw, and just as fast reached out to grab his partner before he hit the ground, and gently lowered him.

Then the sound stopped. Now fully in control of himself, Shindo became cognizant of Sayoko screaming at them not to shoot each other.

Yomo shook his head, looking like he had his wits scattered to the four winds. He suddenly said, "Ow!" and rubbed his jaw. "Who hit me?"

Shindo got him to his feet.

"I didn't think that would work," Gigan said. "I haven't fine tuned my signal enough to be effective on humans." He then walked toward them in a deliberate pace. Gigan didn't say what his intentions were. This much was certain: he wasn't coming to shake their hands.

Shindo and Yomo ducked into the living room, ran down the hall, and skidded to a halt. The shooting had attracted the other guards scattered across the compound, and they were coming right toward Shindo and Yomo. The guards were well armed: AK-47s, M-1911 45 caliber handguns, guns that could shoot through a wall.

Turning around, Shindo and Yomo ran back to the living room where Gigan was still walking after them at his methodical pace. The instant they rushed in, Gigan fired a laser beam from his open palm and swept the beam across the room at waist level. Shindo barely hit the floor in time. He felt the heat pass over him as he ducked.

Several of the pursuing guards weren't as lucky. The beam cut them in two. They died so quick that their faces were frozen in shock while their legs kicked on the hardwood floor.

The surviving guards ran back down the hall.

Shindo glanced to the side to make certain Yomo had ducked in time as well. When Yomo gave him thumbs up, Shindo pointed toward the interior of the living room. Together they scrambled on hands and knees for cover.

Wherever they ducked, Gigan seared their protection. Gigan cleaved sofas and cropped the tops off the chairs. The laser beam left long, smoking gashes in the walls. It snipped the pictures like a scissors cutting through cardboard. The top portions still hung from their hooks while the bottom halves clattered on the floor.

It wouldn't do any good to shoot Gigan. They had already made a bloody mess out of his flesh, and yet, he pivoted on his heel, firing the laser embedded in his hand, as though he had not sustained any injury.

Their only advantage was the size of the room. Kenzo's living room doubled as a ballroom with a capacity for eighty guests. Shindo wasn't sure how much longer they could keep dodging. He was getting winded, and Yomo didn't look to be in any better shape.

Then the phone rang.

Gigan stopped emitting his laser and answered it.

Shindo dropped down by Yomo behind Kenzo's TV. It was big, with a 64-inch screen, providing enough space for both of them to hide. "I can't believe the break we just got!" he said while trying to catch his breath. "Now this is what we're going to do."

Just then the laser beam shot through the television set. Glass exploded from the picture tube like fragments from a grenade. Fortunately, they were behind the set, not in front of it.

Shindo and Yomo split up to make it twice as hard for Gigan to hit them.

It didn't help. Not even the phone call impaired Gigan's concentration. He kept speaking as he fired. "The parts are packed?" he said as he swung his beam about. "Good. Noregon will fetch them. What? Who's Noregon? It's none of your concern."

Noregon? Shindo guessed Noregon must be the armored monster.

Gigan hung up the phone. Now he stopped firing. Turning about on his heel, he returned to the veranda. "We're leaving," he announced to Kenzo and Satin's gang.

"Leaving? You hadn't taken care of those two!" Kenzo pointed toward the inside of his home. "How are we going to get off the veranda? It's a twenty foot drop from here."

Satin had the answer. She took the grappling hook from her sack, clipped it to the railing and dropped a line.

Shindo could see what was happening from his vantage point. Gigan didn't use the line. He kept walking, and then hopped over the railing. Satin provided cover as her gang slid down the rope one by one. She had her sights aimed for the patio door. Kenzo was dragging Sayoko to the rope.

"You were right about Kenzo," Yomo conceded to Shindo in a whisper. "He was after my wife."

"You were right about Satin," Shindo returned. "I think she would've told Gigan to shoot us."

"That's what friends are for. We watch each other's back."

"Wait here," Shindo whispered to Yomo. He was going to slide across the floor to fetch a couple of assault rifles from the dead guards. There was enough broken furniture to at least block Satin's line of sight.

But Yomo wasn't going to wait. He marched right for the patio door.

Satin spotted him, but hesitated when she saw Yomo wasn't aiming for her. Kenzo realized what was going on. By then he had his gun out.

"You whelp," Kenzo bellowed at Yomo. "Who do you think you are, pointing a gun at me! Satin, shoot him!"

Satin slung her Heckler & Koch over her shoulder and slid down the rope.

Kenzo sputtered curses from his lips. He was alone. His right arm was pulled tight like a leash as Sayoko struggled to get free of his grip. Finally, Kenzo aimed his weapon at Yomo.

That's when Yomo fired. The shot echoed in the surrounding foothills. Kenzo Mushita jerked. His eyes went wide and then glassy. A red stain started to spread across his shirt. Then he fell, pulling Sayoko onto the veranda with him.

Shindo doubted Satin was getting out of the way of Yomo's standoff with Kenzo just for the sake of honor. Kenzo was becoming a burden, and she unloaded him on behalf of her boss, Gigan.

He fetched two assault rifles and set one beside Yomo out on the veranda. Yomo was holding Sayoko as she sobbed.

"Do you have any idea who you just shot?" Shindo said. "You took down one of the titans of Japanese industry."

"Do you know who he tried to kidnap?" Yomo replied as he stroked his wife's hair.

"I hear you. Listen, you get Sayoko to safety. I'm going after Gigan."

"Alone?"

"I have to. The trail is getting cold as we speak." Shindo clapped Yomo on the shoulder and climbed over the railing and slid down the rope.

He kept pace with Gigan and Satin's gang as they made their way to the front of Mushita's mansion, toward the portico with its white marble pillars and steps. Gigan and Satin's gang passed the black Sedan. Shindo had been to Kenzo's home before for parties. If they weren't going to take the car, they were heading for Kenzo's helipad atop the mansion's west wing.

Shindo took a shortcut through a pair of glass doors past an indoor pool, which opened to the back of the building. From there, he raced up a set of steps to the helipad. Stopping Gigan was out of the question, but if he damaged the chopper, Gigan couldn't leave. Then it was a matter of calling in help. The army should be able to destroy a man-sized android.

However, at the top of the steps were two guards armed with Uzis, waiting in front of the chopper.

"Hey you!" they called. "Stop!"

Shindo retreated downstairs, out of their line of sight. As soon as they rushed to the edge of the roof, Shindo caught them with a burst from his assault rifle. Three more guards cut him off at the bottom of the steps.

He rushed back up, onto the helipad.

Bullets whisked past his ears. The rounds were coming from a squat air traffic control tower. Kenzo kept a collection of World War 2 memorabilia, including fully functional fighter planes.

Shindo used the helicopter for cover. It was painted white with a blue band along its side and the Mushita Electronics company logo emblazoned on the hatches.

The three guards rushe dup on the helipad

"Drop your weapon! Get away...Augh!"

Shindo didn't give them a chance to finish their command. He mowed them down as fast as they stormed up the steps. He then sprayed rounds at the windows of the control tower to force the other gunmen to duck.

Next, Shindo heard more footsteps coming up the stairs. Looking through the helicopter windshield, he saw Gigan followed by Satin's gang.

From the weight, Shindo could tell his gun was almost empty. He barely had enough rounds to defend himself. Would it be enough to damage the helicopter?

He pinched his eyes shut, made a wish, and then unloaded the AK-47 at the helicopter's engine. Three rounds thundered out of the muzzle. No more. One just perforated the housing. As for the other two, it was anyone's guess if they hit anything vital.

Shindo's only choice was to run down the steps on the opposite side of the helipad. After he concealed himself he heard the helicopter lift off. Shindo took a breath. He did his best. Or did he?

He was a certified pilot. Maybe one of Kenzo's fighters was gassed up and ready to go...

Chapter 14

Godzilla didn't seem interested in helping Rodan find Noregon, even after he had communicated to Godzilla that aliens might be controlling the armored monster. Also, Rodan felt like an outsider around Godzilla and Anguirus.

Discouraged, Rodan left Odo Island.

He felt he had a deeper understanding of what friendship was, now that he believed that he had lost a friend. Too much time was spent with Rodana, too little with Godzilla. Time...it could bind and it can erode, like the sea splashing upon the rocks. A chill went up Rodan's spine when he realized how powerful time was, this thing that couldn't be seen, tasted, or touched.

Rodan soared through clouds toward Japan. Once over the mainland he spotted something peculiar.

He saw the road winding through the forest. At the end of it was a series of rectangular buildings. Smoke billowed from their flues. Rodan recognized the unnatural odor of industry coming from the gray, puffy vapor.

The sun was lowering on the horizon. The surrounding wooded slopes cast long shadows over the buildings.

What was peculiar was a large container that had been left out in the open with several spotlights shining on it. What caught Rodan's attention was the orange flag fluttering from the container. It was as if the humans had arranged this whole setup for a being of his size.

Then he heard the high frequency signal, which meant Noregon was on his way.

Rodan dove for the container. The last time he heard the signal, Noregon fetched a manmade container. Rodan had no doubt the alien wanted this container, too.

As he dove from the clouds, the wind whistled in his ears. The details of the container rapidly took shape as he closed in. Then the ground erupted like a geyser. Black dirt and trees blew up in his path. With a screech, Rodan veered before plowing into the tidal wave of soil.

He ascended a half-mile in the air and then swooped in for a second try.

Noregon lumbered out of his hole, spotted Rodan, and then like a giant dog playing games, grabbed the container, and ran. His armored plates clinked as he crashed through the buildings, kicking up bits of architecture and cinder. The tiny figures of the humans scattered and squealed in panic. As Rodan was about to close in, Norgeon tucked the container under his soft underbelly and laid on it, closing his dermal plates tight against his body. Rodan roared overhead, blowing a brown cloud of dirt and tumbling wreckage from the damaged buildings.

Once Rodan passed over, Norgeon got up, grabbed the container, and ran back toward his hole. Rodan grabbed his tail before he could climb down inside it.

It was a tug of war as Rodan flapped and flapped, dragging Noregon clear of the hole a few feet at a time. But with Rodan, who had a five hundred foot wingspan, and Noregon, who was four hundred feet long, a few feet amounted to a few inches.

Noregon dropped the container down the hole, then spun around and leapt upon Rodan, pinning him to the ground. Rodan's chest heaved under Noregon's weight. The armored monster pushed down with his forepaws. His weight was twice that of Godzilla's.

The beast roared in glee at pinning the pterosaur so easily. It reared its head back and thrust its spear-pointed snout. Rodan grabbed it before it could pierce his face, but his slim fingers weren't made for grasping.

Slowly, his claws scraped along the length of the snout as Noregon forced it home like a knife. Sparks spurted from the tips of Rodan's nails as they skidded across the metal-encrusted surface. Finally, Rodan in one move released the snout and turned his head to the side. The snout speared the hillside.

With Noregon's snout stuck, Rodan pecked Noregon's eyes and exposed throat. The angry nodosaur bellowed, wrenched his snout free, and trundled for his hole. His footfalls rumbled like thunder over the landscape.

Rodan let him go. His ribs ached too much to get up just now. When the soreness subsided, he dug out the hole until he found Noregon's tunnel. From the direction of the tunnel he gauged which way Noregon went.

He also caught a whiff of the strange fungus. He dug a little further until his fingers sank into the brown, gooey substance.

Rodan clucked in disgust.

At least he had a clue of what to look for.

Taking to the air, he headed north, the direction Noregon had gone.

To be concluded...


	5. Chapter 5

Rodan vs Noregon

Rodan vs Noregon

The Conclusion

Chapter 14

Shindo found three World War 2 warplanes set to go in Kenzo's hangar. He chose the fast and sleek Kawasaki Ki-61, the "Tony" as the Allies dubbed it during the war. Shindo could've flown a P-51D Mustang, but he preferred to fly under his nation's colors.

In short order, he was tailing the helicopter through the valleys of the Okuchichibu Mountains. He could tell by how the Kawasaki handled that the 20mm cannons in the wings were fully loaded. All it would take was a press of the trigger on the stick, and Gigan would be no more. But Satin was also onboard the chopper, which gnawed at Shindo. He was so close to nailing that monster. Once Gigan uploaded his consciousness back into his body, only another kaiju could stop him.

He radioed headquarters, got Yamashita on the line, gave his location, and explained what happened at Kenzo's compound. He could hear his boss grit his teeth when he reported Kenzo Mushita's death, but Yamashita had never been happier when Shindo told him he learned Erik's Strong identity.

"Fill in the details," Yamashita said, "starting with Strong. Who is he?"

"Gigan."

"Gigan?" Yamashita repeated. "That's the name of the space monster that was with Ghidorah, isn't it?"

"The very same," Shindo confirmed. "Gigan is a cyborg. He has androids tucked in his body. They scramble out when his body needs repairs. Apparently he can download his consciousness into one of the androids. That explains why Erik Strong seemed so indifferent and naive. He's never encountered our people before. He has no idea how to interact."

"Kaiju walking among us," Yamashita muttered. He then said, "Where is Gigan now, where is he heading?"

"He's in a helicopter," Shindo said, "flying low through the valley."

Shindo was keeping his distance from the chopper so he wouldn't provoke Gigan into using his palm laser. After what Gigan's laser did to Kenzo's living room, Shindo had no doubt Gigan could slice the wings from his craft as though they were paper.

"The chopper is landing," Shindo spoke into his headset mike. From the air, the lush woodland growth made the steep slopes look as picturesque as a post card, but it offered no place to land an airplane.

Then he noticed a wash of dirt and rock at the base of one of the mountains. It looked as though a landside had occurred—or more likely, there was a massive cave there and the entrance had been collapsed to conceal where Gigan hid his kaiju body.

"Listen, I think I found Gigan's hideout. Here are the coordinates." Shindo gave his best guess. He had no map. "I'll circle around so the army and air force have something to home in on."

"Very good," Yamashita said over the headset speakers. "Be careful. I've just been handed a communiqué from one of our air bases. Rodan has been sited. He's on his way to your position. ETA: fifteen minutes."

Chapter 15

Shindo circled overhead while below Gigan in his Erik Strong guise climbed out of the helicopter, followed by Satin and her confederates. Satin shielded her eyes from the sun, watching the silver plane with its green tiger stripes veer over the foothills. She was certain Shindo was up there. Who else would grab a rickety old fighter to stay on mission? She admired his gift for improvisation.

Gigan lead the way through a small opening in the mountainside to their underground hideout. He pulled the handle on the generator, bringing illumination to the blackened interior. The cave was cool, damp, and fulgent with the odor of that brown, gooey fungus. The ceiling looked down at them from a dizzying height. Everything was the same as they had left it, with the bank vault and card table.

Noregon was already there with the container in his mouth. He set it before Gigan, snorting plaintively, as though he were looking for approval from his master.

"Dig." Gigan pointed at the tunnel wall.

Noregon bobbed his head and raucously knocked the vault out of the way and crushed the table underfoot as he plied his forepaws into the rock wall. His dermal armor sparkled like blue glitter in the pale light.

The rock wall tumbled down like a thunderous curtain, and when the choking dust settled, there in an antechamber was Gigan's true form, slumped against the side of the cave.

Satin and her companions were in awe. It was difficult to say what the cyborg construct once was. The head and neck had birdlike characteristics. However, a set of insect-like mandibles flanked the beak. The wings were bat-like sails and its hands resembled meat hooks.

A series of androids came scampering down from an opening at the base of Gigan's spine. They were silvery in color and thin as skeletons.

When Satin crept into the antechamber with her compatriots, she found a transparent vat mounted atop a blinking, humming pedestal. Inside was a gooey substance that was red as blood, yet the surface had the texture of human skin. The substance gave off a musky odor that was disturbingly similar to human sweat.

Two transparent cylinders lay beside the pedestal. One was coffin-sized. The other was small enough to be held in a person's hands.

When Satin drew closer to see what was in the cylinders, the androids came, spilled the fleshy goo on the cave floor, and sprayed the vat with white foam, which evaporated, leaving the vat interior clean. As the goo bubbled into the crevices of the cave floor, a sharp, coppery smell of blood overtook its musky odor.

Disassembling the vat and pedestal, the androids carried them into Gigan's primary body. They chucked the contents of the cylinders. To Satin, the rumpled thing in the large cylinder looked like a husk, turning brown. When it spilled out, it reeked of death. It was a man's skin, cut neatly down the front. It folded on the ground like a discarded coat. The facial features, with their empty eye sockets and mouth, lay flat like a mask.

Faora gasped.

Satin wondered if Celeste was aware of what Strong had hidden in this antechamber. She had spent the most time with him.

From the smaller cylinder slipped the specimen taken from Kenzo's arm. Satin recognized the wrinkled, liver-spotted skin of the old man. The skin had become even more shriveled, like fruit left on the kitchen counter too long.

She glared at Erik Strong, aka Gigan. Perhaps Shindo was right. She should be wary of whom she worked for. This space monster grew cultures from skin to cloak its androids so they could resemble the local inhabitants. She would have been intrigued at the sight of the androids, for they probably reflected the different body configurations of intelligent life on other worlds, but she was incensed by Gigan's ice cold indifference toward how he treated human life.

Gigan ignored her as he watched over his army of androids. Like ants upon an elephant's body, they climbed up Gigan's kaiju body, installing the parts Norgeon had brought in the container.

Satin touched Celeste and Faora's elbow, letting them know it was time to go. This cave had become a den of monsters. But when they reached the cave exit, a giant foot dropped on top of the chopper. Russet scales covered the foot and the toes were tipped with black talons. A bellow shook the cave.

Rodan had arrived.

Chapter 16

Noregon rutted the ground, eager to do battle.

Gigan permitted him with a nod.

Satin and her companions dove for cover as Noregon charged the cave wall. The giant nodosaur burst through the mountainside out into the fresh air and sunshine in a burst of rock, soil, and uprooted trees flying end over end. With one forepaw raised, Noregon let out a resounding bellow of his own.

His throaty roar reverberated through the valley.

When the last echoes died away there was a hush in the air. Rodan was nowhere to be seen.

Then a delta-winged cloud whooshed overhead, rocking Noregon in its slipstream.

Rodan had returned to the air when he heard Noregon's charge toward the cave wall. He found their hideout by the smell of the fungus leaking out of the cave. After he swooped over Norgeon, he let the armored monster chase him up the mountain, all the way to the snowy peak. Then Rodan swooped around in a tight turn and clotheslined Noregon as he rose up to lunge at the swift pterosaur.

The impact gave Rodan's shoulder a good jolt, but Noregon tumbled down the mountain and crashed into the valley below.

Rodan landed on the slope, near the icy peak.

Noregon righted himself, and barreled back up the mountainside, snorting angrily. His tumble had mulched the trees, leaving a broad path of dirt in the woods.

When he neared, Rodan made a one-flap hop and landed on the peak, dislodging an avalanche of snow that swept Noregon back down into the valley.

Enraged, Noregon writhed on his back, kicking his feet in the air.

Flying back down, Rodan landed beside him and pecked his exposed belly. He had learned enough of Noregon's battle techniques to counter them.

In the cave, the androids finished their work and scurried into the opening at the base of Gigan's spine. His Erik Strong identity no longer needed, Gigan heated the metal skin of his android body to burn off the synthetic flesh and clothing. Now he looked no different from his other androids. He followed them through the opening, locking himself into the storage clamps among the other androids within his body.

Once secured, he uploaded his consciousness. His red visor lit. The spike atop his head scraped the ceiling of the cave as he rose to his feet. He clanged his meat hook hands together and let out a hardy, electronic screech. Gigan was whole again.

He gave Rodan a shock when he hacked his way out of the mountain. Rodan spotted Gigan's singled-toed feet, and connected them with the strange foot prints he found in Tokyo. This was Ghidorah's space monster ally!

After a long search, Rodan had come face to face with the object of his quest.

Chapter 17

Gigan banged his hooked hands together, pointed at Rodan and gestured for him to come here.

Rodan flew to the top of ridge on the opposite of the valley and bellowed at the space monster to come after him.

Gigan obliged.

The spurs along the midline of his torso whirred to life. They were the teeth to his belly saw.

Gigan took to the air, flying toward Rodan.

Rodan didn't like the look of that saw. He flew away from this strange space creature so he could gauge Gigan's strengths and weaknesses at a distance. But as he peered over his shoulder, he saw Gigan closing in. Rodan heard Gigan's electric cry and then felt the spurs to Gigan's saw dig into his back. Rodan let out a squawk. The pain was so sharp and sudden he almost lost control of his flight. The wound was deep. That was certain. Rodan veered, leaving behind contrail of red liquid.

He led a merry chase through the valleys and around the foothills of the Okuchichibu Mountains. Gigan was fast, but he wasn't as agile in the sky. Rodan pressed his advantage by outmaneuvering Gigan in aerial acrobatics. He then clutched hold of Gigan's back, and to give Gigan a taste of his own medicine he pecked Gigan's head rapidly as a woodpecker.

Gigan let out a shrill cry in pain, and fell, hitting the ground with a resounding crash.

Shaken momentarily, Gigan got up, reactivated his saw, and took to the air again, and again Rodan outmaneuvered him, grabbing him from behind. Digging in his talons, Rodan drove Gigan into Noregon, belly first. Dirt spewed up in a black cloud as the monsters collided.

While the dirt pattered on the ground, Noregon rolled Gigan off his back, and growled in annoyance. Gigan's saw left a few gouges in the dermal armor. The armor, on the other hand, had chipped off a handful of spurs. The saw's effectiveness had been blunted.

Furious, Gigan bolted after Rodan. He came in too fast for Rodan to play his aerial tricks. They fought in the air with hook and claw. Gigan banged Rodan across the jaw. Rodan's vision flashed white from the blows. Stunned, he couldn't help leaving himself wide open for the final blow. Gigan slammed his hook down on Rodan's chest, knocking the giant pterosaur from the air.

This time it was Rodan's turn to hit the ground.

Chapter 18

Noregon saw his chance to get his licks in.

As he galloped toward Rodan, who was struggling to get up, Shindo swooped in with the fighter and let loose with the 20mm cannons, peppering Noregon in hopes of drawing his attention. Rodan had helped save the Earth in the past. It was a no brainer who Shindo should side with now.

His plan worked. However, it backfired. As Shindo pulled back on the stick to fly clear of Noregon, the armored beast roared at him. Shindo was so close he felt the sound waves punch through him. In the next instant Noregon's armored tail swung into view. Shindo banked to escape, but Noregon, despite his bulk, was too quick.

The tip of Noregon's tail ripped open the fuselage. The plane went into a spin and before Shindo could regain control he was jolted forward in his straps and then thrown back into his seat as the fighter speared the trees and came to an abrupt stop.

Noregon tromped through the woods on the mountainside, looking for the plane.

Gigan summoned him to come here as he landed beside Rodan, rubbing his hooked hands.

Stuck on his back, Rodan wished he could blast an energy beam from his mouth, like Godzilla.

Gigan stomped his foot down on Rodan's bruised chest, pinning Rodan to the ground. The cyborg let out an electric screech in triumph as he held up Rodan's head with one hooked claw and pulled back with the other for the _coupe de grâce_.

Then Rodan's wish came true.

A blue beam of radioactive energy struck Gigan. Like a battering ram, it barreled Gigan over.

Godzilla's roar issued throughout the valley.

Padding the ground nervously, Noregon reacted as though he had heard the angry voice of God.

Rodan got up and saw Godzilla coming up the valley highway, leaving footprints the size of craters in the pavement. He clucked at Godzilla in surprise. How did Godzilla find him?

Godzilla grunted, swinging his arm, gesturing that it was easy. Rodan flew over Japan in broad daylight. All Godzilla had to was follow the sound of the sirens.

Rodan was pleased to see him all the same. He thought Godzilla wasn't interested in helping him.

Godzilla grumbled that he had wanted time to think. Rodan had been impatient.

Noregon studied this banter and decided that whoever was friendly with Rodan must be an enemy of his master. He roared in his throaty voice and charged.

Godzilla's fins lit up in a blue glow as he opened his mouth wide and fired his radioactive beam.

Noregon skidded to a halt and hunkered down. His armor glowed white hot under the intensity of the beam. Surely, that should've cooked Noregon in his shell. But once Godzilla finished his attack, Noregon sprung to his feet and continued battering across the valley. He held his sharp snout forward, steady, like a jouster with his lance.

Godzilla tried to side step, but couldn't get out of the way in time. He did manage to push the snout down before Noregon could pierce his belly. The white-hot armor burned Godzilla's scaly palms.

Noregon hoisted Godzilla up in the air and let him crash on the ground. Both he and Gigan positioned themselves to put Godzilla and Rodan in between them.

Godzilla grunted at Rodan. He'd take on Gigan.

Rodan assented with his own grunt. He'd take Noregon.

Back to back, they faced their chosen opponents.

Then Rodan heard the control signal. The command this time was simple: kill. Turning, Rodan saw Gigan pointing one hooked claw at Godzilla, who was clutching his head, twisting around as though struggling with some sort of inner turmoil. The signal intensified and Godzilla lowered his hands, straightened his posture—and swung full force.

His flailing tail plowed Rodan into the woods. The trees snapped under his weight. Their stumps poked up into his back, like a bed of broken nails.

Godzilla's countenance had turned savage. He loomed over Rodan. His fins flared as he parted his jaws.

Godzilla was about to fire.

Chapter19

Shindo was hung up in the trees, still strapped inside the cockpit. The canopy had been smashed. When he ran his fingers through his hair he found bits of glass. He had only one free hand. The other was pinned. With his free hand he couldn't get access to the release buckle. He was stuck.

"I found him!"

It was Celeste. She aimed her MP5 up at Shindo.

Satin and Faora then stepped into view. Looking up, Satin put her hands to her hips and shook her head at Shindo. She then slung her weapon to her back and climbed to cut Shindo down.

"What do you think of your boss now?" Shindo jutted his thumb toward Gigan, who was in the midst of the roaring battle.

"Don't start," Satin muttered as she cut the straps.

"No problem. I wouldn't want to talk you into anything you don't want to do—like turn over a new leaf."

"Exactly. I don't want you to become bored with me."

Shindo chuckled.

Satin helped him down from the tree. The side of his leg had been torn open in the crash. At Satin's orders, Faora bandaged him. Then they hunkered down and waited for the storm down in the valley to subside.

Godzilla blasted away at Rodan with his atomic ray. Steam curled from his jaws as he pursued Rodan to the ridge.

Rodan drew him into the next valley. When they were out of range of Gigan's signal, the fury went out of Godzilla's eyes. He stopped, shook his head, and looked about, wondering why they had wandered away from the fight.

He spun around and went back.

Rodan took to the air, and raced ahead to pounce Gigan before Godzilla could fall back under the cyborg's spell. But when he came over the rise he heard the signal. This time it was aimed at him.

As he closed in on Gigan, the resentment Rodan felt earlier toward Godzilla welled up into a rage. He swung around, slammed into Godzilla as he came over the rise, knocking Godzilla back down into the neighboring valley. Once he was out of range of the signal, Rodan regained control, and circled back to Godzilla, clucking in apology.

Godzilla wasn't bothered. He was aware Gigan was controlling them. On the other side of the ridge they could hear Gigan screeching and clanging his hooks in mirth.

Rodan had no idea how they were to get Gigan. As soon as they step over the ridge, Gigan would hit him with his mind-bending radio signal.

Godzilla told Rodan to wait here, and went over the rise.

Rodan watched as Godzilla went down into the next valley with a determined gait. Gigan aimed his hooked claw, transmitting his signal. Godzilla halted, bent over. His muscles strained. Then he raised his head, and stomped with greater determination. Gigan intensified his signal. Godzilla bent over again, but this time he didn't struggle as long before closing the gap with Gigan further.

In defense of his master, Noregon charged Godzilla.

Rodan was about to fly in to help when a thorny-looking blur stormed past him, over the ridge, and intercepted Noregon. It was Anguirus! The two monsters Rodan thought had no interest in his cause had taken it off his shoulders, and made his struggle theirs.

Anguirus held Noregon at bay while Godzilla, now in range to hit Gigan with his radioactive beam, flared his fins.

In frustration, Gigan swung his claw down. He copied his control signal from the one the cockroach aliens used on him. When they controlled his actions, he recorded it in his memories and tweaked it to be transmitted from his cybernetic vocal cords, using his right arm to direct the signal.

He saw now this signal was useful to controlling beings that had no reason to resist. He took to the air while Godzilla brewed up to fire his atomic ray. Gigan wasn't going to stick around, risk being damaged all over again.

Rodan chased the cyborg up into the clouds until the air became too thin to breathe. Gigan kept rising higher into the sky, dwindling to a black speck. Just before he disappeared from sight, Rodan saw a bright light envelope the alien cyborg. When the light faded, Rodan squinted in disbelief. Gigan was gone and all Rodan saw was what appeared to be a turquoise gem heading out into space.

Returning to the valley, Rodan found that Godzilla and Anguirus were stymied in what to do with Noregon. Neither horn, nor tooth or claw could impact Noregon's silvery blue armor. But, when Noregon saw Rodan swooping in, he feinted to the right and then bolted out from between Anguirus and Godzilla, heading for the cave.

Rodan pursued, but Noregon ducked into his cave before Rodan could reach him, and brought down the entrance. The mountainside shook as rock and dirt filled the opening. Part of the slope collapsed, leaving a fissure where the cave had been.

Noregon was gone.

Godzilla and Anguirus looked upon Rodan with envy.

Then the army arrived. Jets roared overhead. Armored vehicles rumbled toward the monsters from both ends of the valley, their tracks crushing the underbrush, their engines clattering. Man's machines sounded like angry rats creeping through the trees.

"Someone has to get up to that radio," Shindo said, pointing to the airplane suspended in the trees. "My leg is a mess. I won't be able to climb back up to the cockpit."

"Hah!" Celeste scoffed.

"It's not our problem," Faora said.

The two mercenary women made themselves comfortable on the slope. Even Satin disappointed him. She just smiled and shrugged.

"All right." Shindo said. He put an edge in his tone as he scooted in between Celeste and Faora. "If the army opens fire, we're going to be right back to where we were when those three monsters were rampaging through our cities. If we're lucky," Shindo put his arms around them, "they'll just rampage through Japan. But how often has luck failed us? If a soldier out there gets spooked, takes a pot shot, all bets are off. Godzilla, Rodan, and Anguirus are going to feel so betrayed they'll tear every major city apart on every coast. Businesses will be destroyed. Fortunes lost. The global economy will come down like a house of cards. Sure, you'll probably find all kinds of commissions amidst the chaos. But what good is all that money when you'll have no place to spend it? See," Shindo pulled the women close, "criminals need society intact as much as anyone else."

Indignant, Faora and Celeste pulled away, although Shindo could see his words had an affect. Yet, they wouldn't cooperate. Pride was the problem.

Satin, however, slung her weapon to her back and sighed as one who had to once again shoulder responsibility for the good of the group. "Fine, Shindo. You made your point. What do you want me to tell your superiors?"

Rodan, Godzilla, and Anguirus tensed up for a fight.

The tanks and self-propelled guns rumbled into position. Their engines silenced, and then...nothing.

The humans didn't fire. Their machines didn't budge. Even the jets flew away.

That was so unlike the humans.

Tentatively, the three monsters began to vacate the valley. The tanks remained still. When it became clear the humans were going to hold their peace, the monsters left, and the whole valley seemed to breathe easy again.

Disaster had been avoided—barely.

Rodan returned to Monster Island. His adventure made him feel like his old self. Yet his bruises and abrasions reminded why it was better to be home among familiar faces of Rodana and their offspring. One thing had changed. He didn't have to go looking Godzilla. Godzilla came looking for him. He wanted to know why Noregon ran away from Rodan. Now all Rodan had to do was decide to share his secrets, or let Godzilla think he was a better fighter.

Epilogue

Back at Yamashita's office, Yamashita wanted to know who that woman was who called in the hold fire request.

Shindo sensed Yomo's stare boring into him. He had to admit, it was time to say something. "Her name's Satin," Shindo said. "She's a mercenary. I don't know what her real name is. I'm not sure where she is from, either. Her accent doesn't place her." He told Yamashita how she helped him down from the crashed plane. But he said nothing about his interest her.

Yomo gave him a measured look of approval. Shindo imagined Yomo was thinking this was a good first step. The next step was to disclose that he loved her. Today was not going to be that step.

Yamashita instructed Shindo to fill out a report on her, full details, why she was there, and so forth.

"I'll help," Yomo squeezed Shindo's shoulder, and smiled to their chief, "and make certain it's thorough."

"Excellent," Yamashita said.

Shindo gave Yomo a wry look, and then changed the subject to the monsters.

"The real heroes in this incident were Rodan, Godzilla and Anguirus. I'm against penning them up on Ogasawara Island."

Yamashita folded his hands on his desk. "People aren't comfortable with these creatures roaming free." He then raised a brow to mark the fact of the matter. "And there's too much money being made producing new security systems to keep them shut away on that island."

"I see two problems," Shindo said. "First, the monsters have been peaceful in recent years. Every time we try to corral them is going to antagonize them. At some point they're going to get fed up, and it'll be the 1950s all over again. Second, if we ever do successfully incarcerate the monsters in one place, it's going to make it too easy for the next off-world invader to take control of them, and use them against us."

Yamashita nodded his head. "In that, we agree."

The End


End file.
